Camping

Every August long weekend for the last 11-12 years, Steve and I have gone camping at St. Malo. We knew that this summer would be a lot different and even though there is no long weekend here, we were thrilled to still be able to go camping. Once a month throughout the summer Young Life has planned a one night camping trip on Khortitza Island. They provide the tents and sleeping bags and everyone pays a bit of money for breakfast in the morning. There is swimming in the river and a very, VERY teeny tiny amount of sleep had by all. This was our site: 

 It's incredibly beautiful along the river - there are multiple fire pits right on the bank and little areas where you can go down to tiny little sandy beach areas. The "campground" is free, no services and all first come, first serve. 

 

There were 31 people this time which was a lot - earlier times there were around 12-15 so this was a large group which definitely changed the dynamic, but it was still good. 

 Circle games are a big thing here for people young and old. Popular ones include volleyball, "signs" (I've never played) and this Twister-type game that looks painful. 

 Every once in a while a ship would go by - so cool and so weird!

 At night we cooked food on the fire - "сосиски" (saus-see-skee) which are wieners, tomatoes on sticks, Steve and I tried an onion on a stick, bread and marshmallows. 

 There were also a few rounds of another favourite game called Mafia around the fire at night. They also had most of the people there tell their life stories and how they came to be involved in Young Life. It's interesting because there are a number of Christians and a number of non-Christians so it makes for some interesting stories and views on life. 

The boys had a great night although August was up at 6:25 this morning. There was a rather large group of (our) people who were awake and quite loud all night but the boys slept right on through. I only wish I were so lucky but between the noise and sleeping on a rather large variety of rocks, I didn't fare nearly as well as the kids. The entire campground was a mixture of sand and dirt but we managed to set up our tent on the one rocky area, ha ha. 

In the morning Oleg (Steve's good friend and the Young Life director) got out the wild, wild west pot and started cooking up some "плоф" (ploaf).

 For the longest time we were asking people what on earth this ploaf stuff that everyone goes crazy about is. Well, it's this: 

 It is just rice with meat and vegetables in it. Not so mysterious after all. 

Everyone packed up this morning and we were home before 1 p.m.